Since our last monthly update and by the time you read this, WAASUP will have performed in our second and third parades this summer – Battle Lake and Vining. The Battle Lake parade seemed to go off without a hitch (and it was easier on the arms than the much longer Erhard parade!). We really appreciate the supportive cheers and hollers we hear coming from the roadsides and Schan, our driver, tells us that the reaction of the crowds to our float is amazing to see.
Because a handful of our puppeteers couldn’t be there for the Vining parade, we had to enlist the help of some former WAASUP members and some other seasoned performers. We’d like to say a special thank you to Jeff S. and Ben S. from Trinity and to Olivia B. and Sarah S. (both from another puppetry ministry) for their willingness to help us out and make sure His message still got out there! It’d be our pleasure to have you “honorary WAASUPeteers” back anytime!
As mentioned in the last newsletter, Kyle had the chance to teach puppetry at Lutheran Island Camp’s Performing Arts Camp and we want to let you know that it went extremely well! Another special thank you goes out to P.I.C. Jesus puppetry ministry for letting us use their puppets and props and again to Olivia B. for co-teaching the campers. Olivia (who the campers lovingly nicknamed “Pupp”) and Kyle (who they called “Et”) trained the dozen or so junior and senior high youth each morning for a week to get them ready for their performance at closing chapel. The campers all seemed to really enjoy the unique art form, and it’s our hope that theses campers can maybe find a use for puppetry somewhere in their own churches’ ministries.
In other WAASUP news, although we didn’t end up being a part of VBS this year, we did have the chance to perform for a children’s message. If you were there that Sunday, you would have seen that the skit we performed was only about a minute long. That’s because it’s from a package of skits we bought called “Minute Manna” that we thought would work really well for children’s messages. We hope to do more of those in the future.
Keep in mind that we’ll be at the Dalton Threshers parade on September 6!
In Him,
-The WAASUP Team